Levelling up A research study into what constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives either targeted at or including disabled and d/Deaf emerging and mid-term leaders in the cultural industries sector.
Summary Report
Dr. Nick Owen MBE, Dr. Tina Read and Ruth Gould Research team Mickey Fellowes, Iain Ormsby Knox, Mandy Redvers Rowe, Claire Weetman, Max Zadow
This report is available in alternative formats on request Commissioned by DaDaFest and the Cultural Leadership Programme Levelling up summary report
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1. Introduction This piece of work sets out to examine and identify if there have been positive outcomes for disabled and D/deaf people undertaking arts and cultural leadership courses, both informal and formal, over the last 15 or so years. DaDaFest, formerly North West Disability Arts Forum [NWDAF] has been involved in various disability-led leadership training courses since 1993 and we are curious to see how some of the key ‘movers & shakers’ working today, having achieved recognition in leadership roles across the arts and culture sector, may have benefitted, or not from such initiatives and their relevance to career progression.
been a difference for those seeking work in the sector pre-2002 in how they managed to start and succeed in their journeys.
Over the last 15 years, disabled people living in the UK have experienced many changes in terms of equality and inclusion initiatives designed to ensure active participation in all aspects of society: the biggest aspect being the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 [DDA] which was largely geared towards assisting and asserting rights to inclusion; though it is worth noting that Education was fast-tracked and included as part of the Act in 2002. The DDA has no doubt helped to increase opportunities and possibly raise aspirations through career choices and attainment levels for many people, but aside from rights and equality measures, how have our established leaders managed to succeed in their chosen career? Have positive action initiatives played a role or do we access ‘mainstream’ opportunities alongside other arts leaders?
The final recommendations demonstrate the need to ensure society continues to make proactive initiatives to create opportunities; certainly some people have made it using their own resources and sheer tenacity, but others would not even have got onto the starting block without directed i nitiatives, encouragement and resources. There is a real fear that formal or informal provision into arts and cultural careers may never happen again, especially given these lenient times where as a consequence of government cuts, support has ceased for even the most basic disability needs to survive in what is arguably, the increase in disabling environments.
So what, if any, are the common barriers or opportunities that have helped such leaders continue to work in the sector? How has the world moved on to ensure D/deaf and disabled people can achieve in their careers as artists, performers, producers, et al, or is it all down to the tenacity and brute determination of a few bolshie mavericks? I wonder if there has 2
up summary Levelling Up Summaryreport Report
To explore such issues we have identified a group of accomplished individuals and through in-depth interviews, discuss their journeys especially when undertaking various leadership courses and programmes. It is a piece of work delivered in partnership with the Arts Council and Cultural Leadership Programme; we thank them for the opportunity to work alongside us to investigate and delve into the lives of these accomplished and though provoking leaders.
Ruth Gould MA FRSA, May 2013
Post Script: We would like to acknowledge the work of Dr Tina Read and express our sadness at news of her passing in December 2012. Her contribution to Levelling Up has been invaluable.
2. Executive Summary 1. Levelling Up is a research study which has aimed to investigate the impact that disabled and deaf leadership programmes have had on cultural leadership in the subsidised arts and museums sectors across the UK and Northern Ireland. 2. The study acknowledges that a great deal of success has been achieved in terms of raising aspirations, achieving ambitions and enhancing the status and perceptions of deaf and disabled practitioners within the sector, but is also aware that in some cases, these achievements have perhaps fallen short of individuals and organisations expectations. The study therefore set out to ask the question:
What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives either targeted at or including disabled and d/Deaf emerging and mid-term leaders in the cultural industries sector?
3.Three subsidiary questions were also asked through the study: 1. What conditions are required for the emergence of successful disabled and d/Deaf leaders? 2. What factors contribute to – or prevent – the successful development of d/Deaf and disabled leaders? 3. What influence do mainstream arts practitioners and organisations have in the successful development of those leaders? 4. The four field workers: Mickey Fellowes, Iain Ormsby-Knox, Mandy Redvers-Rowe and Max Zadow, who undertook the field visits, interviews and data collection were all recognised disability artists with many years standing in the disabled and d/Deaf communities and wider cultural sector as a
whole. Dr. Tina Read, a fifth member of that team was additionally responsible for providing a literature overview and also provided data analysis expertise. A further two non-disabled researchers have been involved in shaping the project; Claire Weetman (project co-ordinator) and Dr. Nick Owen who has been responsible for the substantive writing of the final report. 5. Initial research suggested three constituencies which should be approached to gather a sample of research participants: individuals, organisations and networks. As a result of this process, 14 individuals identified themselves as potential participants in the study. They completed an Expression of Interest form and on the basis of this data, field visits were organised. The people who agreed to participate as portraits in this study were:
Tony Heaton Deepa Shastri Lynn Weddle Caroline Ward Chas De Swiet Jayni Anderton Rachel Gadsden Barry Avison Stephanie Fuller Mandy Colleran Susan Austin Ian Macrae Ranjit Sondhi Jez Colborne
London London Brighton Manchester London Shropshire London Liverpool Brighton London Plymouth London Birmingham Yorkshire
6. Each portrait has been given a brief title to indicate the ‘essence’ of that person’s experiences and each portrait ends with some proposed answers to the research question which have been drawn out from the portrait and accompanying research data. It also identifies further sources of information about the portrait should readers wish to read more about that portrait. Levelling up summary report
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7. The implications of this study are wide ranging and could affect practitioners, organisations and policy makers alike. In summary, we suggest that in order to build on the work of the Cultural Leadership Programme and to continue to generate excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives for disabled and d/Deaf emergent leaders in the cultural industries sector, the following factors should be taken into account in future programme design.
• Mentoring from mentors who are outside the host organisation • Using Social Media in training events • High quality tertiary education programmes which are developed in partnership with disability and d/Deaf organisations
8. Emergent leaders should be encouraged to identify their personal strengths through:
• To the practitioner’s artistic voice, skills and expertise • To opportunities which demonstrate similarity across sectors as well as differences • With training and development opportunities which are rooted and centred within the d/Deaf communities • Collaboration opportunities which enhance their collaborative skills both with disabled and d/Deaf practitioners and non-disabled practitioners • To new understandings of leadership
• Programmes which emphasise personal qualities of leadership in additional to technical ‘toolkits’ • Their vocational skill development • Joining professional networks which support their progress • Producing articles / writing up and broadcasting the work • Reflecting on personal experience including embracing failure and validating their own personal experience and voice • Identifying significant role models 8.1 Developmental initiatives should provide emergent leaders with access to:
8.2. Initiatives should aim to ensure that emergent leaders should be able to connect their leadership learning:
8.3. Organisations can assist emergent leader development by
• Providing commissioning and producing opportunities • Work based learning programmes • High profile events, learning opportunities • Work based placements and high profile practitioners • High quality mainstream work based • Professional networks learning opportunities • Action Learning Sets as a developmental tool • Mainstream leadership development initiatives • Bursaries which allow real-world production opportunities • Coaching and mentoring from other disabled motivators including Disability coaching, Non-disability coaching and • Personal Mentoring 4
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8.4. We suggest there are 14 different roles which arise that Disabled Leaders possess. These are summarised as follows: The Gregarious Leader: the leader who combines the skill to operate in many faceted contexts, combining a complex mix of skills and a gregarious personality. The Bridge Builder Leader: the leader who helps build bridges between people, understanding how they work and how they can fit together in the workplace. The Leader As Portrait Maker: the artistleader who works closely together with their subjects, through both leading each other and being led by the other, to find the optimal expressive moment. The Backpacking Leader: the leader who has the skills, knowledge and backup plans which are needed when setting down a leadership route that supportive organisations are able to identify. The Map Reader Leader: the leader who negotiates a complex arrangement of opportunity, challenge and achievement and who can establish a coherent leadership journey which can be sustained into the future. The Route Leader To Higher Education: the leader who can facilitate collaborations with a disability specific arts organisations, to produce an inspirational development programmes for cultural leaders. The Leader As Powerful Artist: the leader who through the uniqueness, clarity and power of their artistic voice, can become a cultural leader and a force for wider social awareness and change.
The Polymathic Leader: the leader who demonstrates significant effect and affective influence across a range of cultural, economic and social contexts. The Leader-Manager: the leader whose initial leadership qualities can be supplemented and extended through increasing their managerial capabilities. The Polychoreographic Leader: the leader who has the ability to shape, move and influence diverse organisations, cultural practices and people, as a result of their own work in those differing contexts. The Polyphonic Leader: the leader who has the ability to speak in many different ‘tongues’: artistic, social, political. The Leader as Path-beater: the leader as pioneer who beats paths with others through the cultural forest. The Magnetic Leader: the leader who through sufficient personality and personal networks, shape the future programme and policy of tomorrow. The Leader as Collaborator: the leader who does not rely solely on the body and mind of one person alone but who leads collaboration and pulls together support from other sources of expertise. We suggest that the qualities these different leadership archetypes possess provide valuable insights into how d/Deaf and Disabled cultural leaders emerge in the cultural sector and can provide important case studies for the leaders of tomorrow.
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3. Theoretical framework
4. Methodology and field research
Portraiture The work on portraiture by Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot offers a generative and inclusive approach to undertaking this kind of research. (Lawrence-Lightfoot, 2005, 1986, 1983; Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis,1997). Whilst used in educational contexts, on ‘goodness’ in schools for example (Hall, Thomson and Jones, 2008) she presents portraiture as “a genre whose methods are shaped by empirical and aesthetic dimensions, whose descriptions are often penetrating and personal, whose goals include generous and tough scrutiny’ (1983: 369). For the purposes of this study, portraiture allows for the possibility of “private intimate storytelling which is at the centre of portraiture, with the public discourse that it hopes to affect” (ibid:11).
Initial research suggested three constituencies which should be approached to gather a sample of research participants: individuals, organisations and networks. They included individuals, organisations and networks. As a result of this process, 14 individuals identified themselves as potential participants in the study.
The stories of our portraits and their effect on our wider public discourse are stories which are persuasive, timely and speak to the next generation of disabled cultural leaders and the people, programmes and organisations they will be leading.
Each portrait has identified a range of leadership development programmes and training courses that they were involved in. Whilst these are referred to in the portraits, a summary of overview of the programmes they have been involved in and details about those training programmes are described later in this summary document.
Glossary
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ATW
Access to Work
CLP
Cultural Leadership Programme
DaDaFest
Disability and Deaf Arts Organisation
DDA
Disability Discrimination Act
NHS
National Health Service
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Each portrait has been given a brief title to indicate the ‘essence’ of that person’s experiences and each portrait ends with some proposed answers to the research question which have been drawn out from the portrait and accompanying research data. It also identifies further sources of information about the portrait should readers wish to read more about that portrait.
5.1. Tony Heaton The gregarious leader - old hands, lots of new tricks Tony Heaton has been the chief executive of Shape since 2008 but his work as a leader has been on-going since the 1980s. Tony’s portrait is an example of the importance of understanding how personal, developmental programme and contextual factors can combine effectively to provide long lasting benefits to both the individual and the beneficiaries of their leadership vision. He is an example of the gregarious leader: one who combines the skill to operate in many faceted contexts, combining a complex mix of skills and a gregarious personality. He sees his leadership role as involving: • The setting out of a long-term strategic vision for an organisation • An ambassadorial presence across the wider cultural sector • Providing training and development opportunities for organisational staff and the wider disabled artists community • The selling and marketing of the organisation • Networking • Building teams of practitioners, • Developing new projects and products What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • The power of learning by doing • Embracing failure • Don’t cut the wings off your dreamers
Further details about Tony’s work can be found at: www.culturalleadership.org.uk/375/
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5.2. Deepa Shastri The bridge builder leader Deepa Shastri started her acting career at University although in an informal capacity rather than through a formal acting course. She worked in the charitable sector after leaving university with Breakthrough but soon moved onto the BDA for WISDOM project – Wireless Information Services for Deaf on the Move. This led on to pitching and presenting a documentary for Channel 4, Back to Bombay. She has now trained over fifty theatres about deaf access such as theatre captioning for STAGETEXT and is developing her career as a producer. She is currently Associate Producer at SHAPE. Over the last two years her passion for the arts has been supported and strengthened through participation in coaching programmes offered by Sync and placements offered through the Cultural Leadership Programme. Her portrait demonstrates the demands made on early career leaders such as the difficulties in articulating their own styles and the importance of significant others in identifying leadership capabilities. What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • Disability coaching • Non disability coaching • Work based placements • Accessible mainstream leadership development initiatives • Producing an article on deaf leadership for Sync • Reflecting on personal experience
Further details about Deepa’s work can be found at: www.Syncleadership.co.uk/?location_id=734 www.Syncleadership.co.uk/Leading%20with%20Deafness
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5.3. Lynn Weddle The leader as portrait maker Lynn Weddle describes herself as a photographic artist: not just a photographer but as an artist who employs photography as her medium within a variety of community contexts. Her work as both as a producer of her own work, and facilitator of other people’s creative expression gives a particular focus to her leadership development and the challenges she has faced in developing her leadership stance. In her facilitation work, she describes a process of auto self-portraiture: one where the facilitator and the subject work closely together to consider locations, lighting, clothing, the camera angle and composition – all of the elements that make up a photographic portrait. The ‘subject’ of the photo then uses a cable release to trigger the camera themselves and so are ultimately in control at the decisive moment of when the photograph should be taken. The auto self-portrait in one sense is a metaphor for how Lynn’s leadership style has evolved: one in which artist and subject work closely together – through both leading each other and being led by the other - to find the optimal expressive moment. Lynn’s portrait is thus an example not only of the importance of formal training courses and informal development opportunities: but of the power of working collaboratively, of developing networks of like-minded practitioners and the influence of the ‘other’ on how leaders take shape and assume their roles. What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • The role of family, friends and disability and professional networks in supporting her progress • The role of Action Learning Sets as a developmental tool • The role of Personal Mentoring
Further details about Lynn’s work can be found at: www.lynnweddle.com
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5.4. Caroline Ward The backpacking leader Caroline has always been involved in the arts: she studied for a Fine Art degree in Brighton and then went on to do a Masters in Film Studies at the University College London. This led to her working for Creative Partnerships, the Arts Council funded organisation which aimed to develop creative teaching and learning in schools through the introduction of creative practitioners to schools. From working initially as a project manager, then as a digital arts practitioner, she worked her way up to become operations manager where she managed a variety of school based projects – everything from the finance through to school liaison. This led to her working in London where she worked in film production – from generating ideas through to distribution. This followed with a role in Donor Access at the British Film Institute which she coupled to work at the South Bank, working as technical director in the cinema there. Using her archive background Caroline joined the BBC as a Knowledge Organiser with BBC Extend (a disability placement scheme). She then moved to Manchester to work in the BBC which is where she works now. Caroline’s portrait shows disability and d/Deaf organisations and mainstream organisations combining to produce a coherent path from initial access and first production opportunities to producing within mainstream contexts. Hers is an example of the backpack leader: someone who has the skills, knowledge and backup plans she needs to use when setting down a leadership route that supportive organisations are able to identify for her. What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • Providing significant role models • Networking and Group work • Offering different leadership styles • Use of Social Media in training events
Further details about Caroline’s work can be found at: www.Syncleadership.co.uk/individual_artist_caroline_ward
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5.5. Chas De Swiet The map reader leader Chas De Swiet is a musician who has worked in the underground music scene in London and has extended his skills into multimedia design. His personal experiences of mental health and public mental health services led to work initially as administrator for the London Disability Arts Forum (LDAF) from which he went to work at Mind Mental Health Media. Starting as Research and Production Assistant he became Production Manager and then progressed to Head of Operations. He was a significant part of the team which developed the Mental Health Media Awards, an event which is held annually (now the Mind Media Awards) and which aims to celebrate the best portrayals of mental distress and reporting of mental health in broadcast, print and new media. At the time of writing this report, Chas worked as Associate Producer for the Greenwich and Docklands Festival. Whilst he started working within the Disability Arts sector which provided some essential steps into cultural leadership, further leadership development opportunities became available through a placement through CLP at LOCOG, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. This led directly to being appointed as Diversity Relationship Manager at the Arts Council of England which too, offered particular challenges to Chas’s leadership trajectory. His own music career also offered him other important opportunities to extend his leadership portfolio and skill base. His portrait is inspired by a current music media project he is developing: Sound System Mapping. Developed along similar lines to the Book Crossing phenomenon in which books are left in public places to be picked up and read by others, who then repeat the process. Chas’s project uses music and images to map his emotional journeys of his life. It demonstrates that a coherent leadership map cannot simply be drawn by plotting in activities into a timetable which are then delivered by organisations. The leadership map is a complex arrangement of opportunity, challenge and achievement for the emergent leader. The elements on that map – whether they are disability arts organisations, mainstream organisations or the individuals own efforts - need to act in concert if that leader is to establish a coherent leadership journey which can be sustained into the future. What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • Work based placements • Bursaries • Work based learning programmes
Further details about Chas’s work can be found at: www.deswiet.co.uk/ www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/interviews/tuning_in_to_nutter_tv_interview_with_ chas_de_swiet.shtml Levelling up summary report
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5.6. Jayni Anderton The route leader to higher education Jayni Anderton is a visual artist who identified herself as an artist from an early age – and a disabled artist from her mid-twenties. As she says in her own introduction to MA thesis, some of us are born disabled; some of us achieve disability and some of us have disability thrust upon us. Her first degree was in Technical Theatre Arts at Arden School of Theatre in Manchester. After finishing at Arden she became involved with DASh (Disability Arts Shropshire which she found an inspirational time and this led to her connecting with North West Disability Arts Forum (NWDAF) and the workshop leaders programme it developed with the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA), entitled Leading the Way. As a result of developing her own facilitation and workshop leading skills, she decided to help develop those skills for other practitioners. In doing so, she has extended her own practice to a range of non-disabled arts contexts and has influenced a variety of other practitioners who are at the beginning of their careers and engagement in the disability arts movement. Hers is a portrait of how a higher education institution – in this case, LIPA, was able to collaborate with a disability specific arts organisation, NWDAF, to produce an inspirational development programme for cultural leaders which neither partner could have produced alone. It also demonstrates though that for all the initiative shown by inspirational individuals – whether they be working inside or outside of larger organisations – the need for sustainable leadership programmes in cultural contexts which are on the periphery of political influence. Her story reinforces the need for how early career leaders need on-going structural support and encouragement to see them through their leadership journeys and not solely the cheerful words of friends and family. What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • High quality tertiary education programmes which are developed in partnership with disability and d/Deaf organisations • Sustainability • Vocational skill development • Emotional and practical support for during early start up
Further details about Jayni’s work can be found at: www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk/thewayahead
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5.7. Rachel Gadsden The leader as powerful artist Rachel is a professional visual artist who also works in film, performance and mixed media whose work deals with three universals: survival, fragility and hope. She sees her work operating on both personal and global levels and consequently has become interested in cultural leadership given the possibilities of wider cultural and political change that leadership offers. This portrait is an example of how an artist can, through the uniqueness, clarity and power of their artistic voice, become a cultural leader and a force for wider social awareness and change. Having undertaken a number of major commissions and residencies at old asylum hospitals, Rachel found herself drawn into the field of mental health and in particular the difficulty people have in disclosing mental health issues. She was drawn to these buildings because they were derelict and their fragility, she felt, was a metaphor for the fragility of human life. This is one of the central themes of her work, based on her own personal experiences. She worked for nearly five years in the field including some time at Cane Hill psychiatric hospital in Surrey, one of the main destinations for Londoners who were taken to asylum hospitals in the 19th century. This project expanded her work in the public domain and she became increasingly known as a public artist. This led to other similar commissions across the UK, winning awards and bursaries along the way and consequently becoming a more prominent public persona as an artist in the process. She sees cultural leadership as being an integral part of her vision of what an artist can do and acknowledges that artists do have a wider role in society than merely finding new ways to express their inner most feelings and thoughts. What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • Identifying personal strengths • Coaching and mentoring from other disabled motivators • Access to high profile events, learning opportunities and high profile practitioners • Connecting leadership learning to the practitioner’s artistic voice, skills and expertise
Further details about Rachel’s work can be found at: www.rachelgadsden.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
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5.8. Barry Avison The polymathic leader Barry Avison is self-confessedly not a leader in the traditional sense of the word. Regarding himself more as an encourager, Barry is an example of the kind of leadership which has been demonstrated in other studies which investigate the relationship between disability and leadership: leaders who are not only not driven by traditional values of leadership (power, status) or traditional stories of leadership (hero, charismatic individuals) – but who see their role in society as far more important than just fulfilling a particular job title or organisational function. (Hammond, 2004; DAIL and Hammond, 2007; and Roulstone, unpublished). These leaders demonstrate significant effect and affective influence across a range of cultural, economic and social contexts and as such might be termed polymathic leaders, given their ability to occupy many different cultural spaces, engage with many different audiences in a variety of ways and to utilise very different skillsets for their effect. The portrait of Barry is an example of one such polymathic leader. His is also a portrait of someone who has chosen to remain within the deaf community and orchestrate his efforts from there, rather than engage with mainstream initiatives which could have the effect of distancing himself from that community. Barry demonstrates this concept by being able to hold down and successful develop many different roles simultaneously. At the time of this report, he was both administrator for DaDaFest in Liverpool as well as performer and director for Merseyside Deaf Theatre. This is coupled too to being treasurer for the Merseyside Society of Deaf People and treasurer for the British Deaf Association. What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • Training and development opportunities which are rooted and centred within the d/Deaf communities • Learning opportunities which demonstrate similarly across sectors as well as differences • Programmes which emphasise personal qualities of leadership in additional to technical ‘toolkits’
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5.9. Stephanie Fuller The leader-manager Stephanie is senior manager, regional planning at Arts Council South East. The main focus of her work is about external relationships with mostly non-arts based organisations bodies but who might be working with the arts practitioners or arts organisations. This includes working with local government and other cultural agencies and organisations like the National Trust and nationally leading on the development of the Arts Council’s work with the new Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). She line manages and supports a team of nine people and has worked in the Arts Council for over ten years in various capacities. Part of her role now is also investigating how the principle of distributive leadership - a model based on the idea that leadership of an organisation should not rest with a single individual, but should be shared or “distributed” among those with the relevant skills - can be developed within particular areas of Arts Council activity. Stephanie’s portrait is an example of how a disabled practitioner has added on leadership skills to a strong management base through both work based developmental opportunities which have been coupled to her participation in a suite of training and development opportunities which have developed her leadership potential. Her story is of how her initial leadership qualities could be later supplemented and extended through her managerial capabilities. What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • Networks, Sync 2009 • Leadership facilitation skills • Coaching • Intensive Day courses, 2008 • Strengths based leadership 2009 • Intensive long-term courses, Leadership Unleashed 2010 • Conferences, Lead On 2010
For further information about Stephanie’s work please see: www.culturalleadership.org.uk/profile/qanda/stephanie-fuller/ www.social-sculpture.org/people/core-network1/stephanie-fuller.htm www.syncleadership.co.uk/Validity-of-Voices
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5.10. Mandy Colleran The polychoreographic leader Mandy Colleran is a performer who also provides workshops in disability equality and drama, the latter focused particularly on developing products and services which are accessible and disability sensitive for a range of organisations, disabled and non-disabled professionals and participants. Her first experience of working in the sector was as a job share, development worker for a project, which at that time was part of Merseyside Council for Voluntary Service, called ‘AIM’ - Arts Integration Merseyside. Mandy’s journey into the arts was not particularly straightforward though; working with AIM led onto working as Arts Officer for Liverpool City Council – and then back to AIM – or the organisation it had become, North West Disability Arts Forum. Mandy was also involved in this transformational process whilst working within the City Council too so her influence could be seen on that organisation from a number of different viewpoints. But this journey too was not straightforward either: within a few years she had joined two other performers, Mandy Higgins and Ali Briggs to form a theatre company, No Excuses, with whom she still works as a co-devisor, writer and performer. Mandy’s portrait is an excellent example of how disabled cultural leaders may have very diverse career paths in their career trajectory: moving from disability sector to mainstream and back again, from the social policy to performing arts sectors and vice versa; and from small to large back to small organisations: and making these contradictory and oppositional movements over the same period of time. Where Barry Avison demonstrates the leadership qualities of a Polymathic Leader and Susan Austin exemplifies the Polyphonic Leader, Mandy Colleran could be said to Polychoreographic leader with her ability to shape, move and influence diverse organisations, cultural practices and people, frequently as a result of her personal work in those differing contexts. This is not so much a portrait of a leadership journey, but of a leadership map in which different journeys are possible through a career, sometimes seemingly in opposition to other journeys on that map and sometimes those opposing journeys can take place over the same period of time. What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • Work based learning • Placements • Mentoring from mentors who are outside the host organisation
Further information about Mandy’s work can be seen at: www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/interviews/13_questions_mandy_colleran.shtml www.shapearts.org.uk/news/newsdetail/index.asp?view=229 www.myspace.com/fittingsma/photos/3399085 16
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5.11. Susan Austin The polyphonic leader Susan Austin is a fine artist and the lead practitioner of the South-West based organisation, Freewheeling, a company she describes as an emerging disability art initiative focusing on providing a hub to foster integrated arts projects which allow ideas and artistic concepts to develop while maintaining an emphasis on research that aims to reposition disability arts and the status of disabled artists within the mainstream cultural sector. Her recent work focused on the research and development project, Testing the Water, which has been funded by the Impact Fund from the Arts Council South West and is frequently referred to as the Underwater Wheelchair project; a programme of work which has been shaping the whole of my life at the moment and is a bid to the Unlimited programme being developed as part of the London 2012 Olympics cultural programme. This portrait shows Susan articulating her own understanding of the processes she has gone through in their development of her cultural leadership skills. In contrast to many of the other portraits in this report, this report draws heavily from the transcription of her interview: it is as if it has been authored almost entirely by the portrait herself. Intervention from this report’s authors has been focussed on maintaining the flow of the narrative and keeping the word count to the appropriate limits. Whilst this approach reflects one issue identified in the opening section of this report – that of non-disabled practitioners reporting on the work of disabled practitioners – it offers other insights into how disabled leaders stories are developed and communicated by disabled leaders themselves, unmediated by any third party. References to formal funding applications that Susan has submitted also demonstrate how the direct language of her experience and artistic vision is translated into the language of the academy. It demonstrates another aspect of cultural leadership development: the need for polyphony and the ability to speak in many different tongues. What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • Facilitation and access support within Higher Education institutions • Validation of her personal experience and voice • Providing new understandings of leadership • Mentoring and role models
Further information about Susan’s work and current practic can be seen at: www.susanaustin.co.uk/
www.wearefreewheeling.org.uk
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5.12. Ian Macrae The leader as path-beater Ian is a media professional who worked for the BBC for many years and is at the time of this report, editor of the magazine ‘Disability Now’, the magazine produced by the charity ‘Scope’. As editor, Ian has a major responsibility for how disabled people are represented and represent themselves in the publication. His ethos and vision for the magazine is uncompromising and is grounded in the desire to provide a significant, audible and respected voice for disabled people which speaks not just for them but of them: and to speak to the wider world in a way that mainstream media are unable to do. Ian’s route to leadership has stemmed from many years hard fought experience working in mainstream media organisations, both within radio and television. This happened during a time where there were little opportunities for any formal leadership training or development either within or without those organisations - I’ve never had a day’s training in my life – but the lessons he has learnt through those experiences give some important insights to younger leaders who are setting off on their leadership careers and who are now facing more hostile funding climates than perhaps some of the other portraits in this report have faced in recent years. Ian’s portrait is one which speaks of how to contend with the pressures that work based training within mainstream organisations can generate: it is the portrait of the pioneer who has beaten paths with others through the cultural forest who looks back now only to see the undergrowth in danger of growing back, covering up his footsteps and preventing others from following him. What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • High quality mainstream work based learning opportunities • Sustainability • Vigilance • Enhancing collaborative skills
For more information about Ian’s work please see: www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/writers/ianmacrae.shtml www.scope.org.uk/about-us/how-were-run/our-team/editor-disability-now
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5.13. Ranjit Sondhi, CBE The magnetic leader Ranjit Sondhi is currently Chair of Sampad South Asian Arts, the arts development agency based in Birmingham whose role is to promote the appreciation and practice of the diverse art forms originating from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He became interested in music when he heard his father playing the violin after which he learnt how to play the tabla, the sitar and the violin. He subsequently crossed the boundary of arts into science which led to him attaining a First Class degree in theoretical physics at the University of Birmingham. His leadership potential was soon evident after he left university when he joined an urban commune together with other students who felt that they wanted to make a real difference at a neighbourhood level. They set up women’s groups and children’s clubs; a claimant’s union; residents’ associations; benefits and legal advice centres. In1976 he founded the Asian Resource Centre: which soon became a landmark in the history of Handsworth. Whilst he started his work within a specific social context, his subsequent work and influential leadership expertise has been felt across many different sectors. He describes himself as having a portfolio career which has crossed many professional, cultural and organisational boundaries. His first role in a public regulatory capacity was as member of the Independent Broadcasting Authority. He then became deputy Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, followed by a period as Chair of the Refugee Education Training and Employment Forum; he was a member of the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Commission on Legal Education and Conduct, the Ethnic Minority Advisory Commission of the Judicial Studies Board, a governor of the BBC following this up by becoming a Trustee for the National Gallery for good measure. His magnetic tendencies for positions of influence and public accountability has now led him to become Chair of the Heart of Birmingham Primary Care Trust, a Civil Service commissioner, a member of the Tenant Service Authority, Trustee of the Baring Foundation and a member of the Bryant Trust. What has been common to Ranjit’s leadership journey has been the importance of contributing to public policy within the context of major public organisations. Whilst Sampad is located within clear cultural and social contexts, part of their brief is also to ensure sustainability of these art forms by creating cultural leaders for the future: and Ranjit’s extensive leadership capabilities means that he can offer not only a long sighted view on where leadership comes from, and how it develops, but also the knowledge of how future leaders can be developed. Ranjit’s portrait then is an example of how many of the experiences of leaders referred to earlier in this report can, through the magnetism of personality and personal networks, shape the future programme and policy of tomorrow.
What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • Personal preparation, Mentoring, Residential programmes
For more information about Ranjit’s work please see: http://tinyurl.com/q5uf4aq http://tinyurl.com/oejvnu7 www.bbcgovernorsarchive.co.uk/about/ranjitsondhi.html Levelling up summary report
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5.14. Jez Colborne Leader as a powerful collaborator Jez is a musician, singer and actor who collaborates with the disability-related theatre company, Mind the Gap. At the time of this report, he received a commission from Unlimited* to develop his piece Irresistible, to be performed as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Jez has a vision for a symphony of sirens – a choral work that combines warning sirens, other non-traditional instruments and singing voices. Along with many other emerging disabled artists, Jez faced resistance from home when he announced that he wanted to become a performer although after several years of hard work his achievements on stage paid off. The story of parental resistance to young aspirant performers is a common one – whether they are either disabled or non-disabled. In an industry which is notoriously driven by ego and self-centredness though, what is not so common though are stories of young, emergent performers wanting to develop their leadership skills at such an early stage in their career for the benefits of the wider community that they come from. People with learning disabilities are at particular risk of being patronised and being on the receiving end of low expectations. Jez’s portrait is an example of that story and the steps he has taken from the start to develop his leadership portfolio. It is also a story of how enacting leadership does not necessarily have to lay in the body and mind of one person alone: leadership can also involve acts of collaboration and support from other sources of expertise. What constitutes excellent and innovative practice in Cultural Leadership initiatives? • Professional networks • Role models and industry based mentors • Opportunities for collaboration both with disability and d/Deaf practitioners and non-disabled practitioners
For more information about Jez’s work please see: www.mind-the-gap.org.uk/agency/actor_profiles/jez-colborne www.artspider.org.uk/whats_on/645 * The Unlimited project was at the heart of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad and celebrated the work of disabled
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6. Selected references Abberley, P. (1987) The Concept of Oppression and the Development of a Social Theory of Disability, Disability, Handicap and Society 2(1):921. Flnkelstein,V. (1980) Attitudes and Disabled People, World Rehabilitation Fund. Hammond et al (2004) Arts Council England Disability Strategy Policy Team: Education, Training, Learning and Professional Development, London: ACE. Harris, M. (2009) LEAD ON: An Open Space Conference for Disabled Leaders in the Cultural Sector Transcript and Report. Hartley, S. and Muhit, M. (2003) Using Qualitative Research Methods For Disability Research In Majority World Countries, Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation, Journal Vol. 14, No. 2, pp 103: 114. Kay, S. and Venner, K. (2010) A Cultural Leadership Reader, London: CLP. Kimbell, R. (2000) Creativity in crisis, Journal of Design and Technology Education, vol. 5 no. 3 pp 206 – 211. Lawrence-Lightfoot, S. and Davis, J.H. (1997) The Art and Science of Portraiture, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. MLA (2008) Strategic Evaluation of the Leading Archives and Museums Development Programme, Museums Libraries and Archives. Oliver, M. (1990) The Politics of Disablement, Basingstoke: Macmillan. Roulstone, A. (un-published) Disabled Managers and Leaders Study Findings and Policy Pointers. Shildrick, M. and Price, J. (2006) Deleuzian connections and queer corporalities: shrinking global disability, Rhizomes, Vol. 11/12 Stone, E. and Priestley, M. (1996) Parasites, Pawns and Partners: Disability Research and the Role of Non-Disabled Researchers, The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 47, No. 4, pp. 699-716. Ucbasaran, D. (2009) Leading Entrepreneurial Teams: Insights from Jazz, ISBE Conference papers. UPIAS, Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (1975).
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The Research Team The team comprised both a working group and research practitioners as follows: Working Group Dr Abigail Gilmore, Director, Centre for Arts Management & Cultural Policy, Manchester Metropolitan University Ruth Gould, Chief Executive, DaDaFest Chris Hammond, Artistic Director, Full Circle Arts Diane Morgan, Project Manager, Cultural Leadership Programme, Arts Council England Dr Nick Owen MBE, Director, Aspire Trust Jo Verrent, Independent Consultant Sue Williams, Senior Strategy Officer, Diversity (Disability), Arts Council England Research Practitioners Mickey Fellowes, writer and field researcher Iain Ormsby-Knox, actor, director and field researcher Dr Nick Owen, lead researcher Dr Tina Read, assistant researcher Mandy Redvers-Rowe, director, performer, writer and field researcher Claire Weetman, project co-ordinator Max Zadow, director and field researcher Administrative support was provided by both DaDaFest and the Aspire Trust
Thank You
We would like to express our thanks to all the people who were involved in this report, from the working group to the research team, most importantly the profiles. We wish them well in their future endeavours.
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DaDaFest The Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BX 0151 707 1733 info@dadafest.co.uk www.dadafest.co.uk
Aspire Trust Valkyrie Lodge 30 Valkyrie Road Wallasey Merseyside, CH45 4RJ 0151 639 9231 info@aspire-trust.org
Arts Council England www.artscouncil.org.uk
Cultural Leadership Programme www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/ arts-council-initiatives/past-initiatives/ the-cultural-leadership-programme/
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WORK BASED LEARNING Placements
Networks
Coaching, Mentoring, Facilitation
1. Tony Heaton
Leading through Change CLP Network
Leadership Advance one-toone Mentoring with Baroness Lola Young
2. Deepa Shastri
CLP Leading in London programme, Associate Producer project management of Unlimited, for LOCOG via Shape. (May 2010 – March 2011).
Women to Watch events and Improbable Mentoring Networking Fete at BAC in 2010.
3. Lynn Weddle
Voluntary work placement at Focal Point Gallery in 2007
Life coaching with Mandy Legg through DadaSouth. Also getting mentoring by Julia Winkler. Action Learning Set 2007 -2010 with seven other disabled artists who also worked as artistic advisors as part of DaDa Exchange. 2010 –on-going Action Learning Set offering peer mentoring through Fabrica
Online leadership development through websites, e-newsletters and social networks Featured on Sync web initiatives
Coaching from Sync, Sarah Pickthall, Mark Wright and Liz Margee.
INTENSIVE LEARNING Residential courses
Research
Clore Leadership Programme – Short course (2 weeks) 2008 Sync website and monthly updates, CLP updates
Wrote a contri- Leadership bution for the Advance CLP Cultural Leadership Reader
Photovoice – two week long residential course to train people in the community with the skills to take their own photographs
Masters in photography. Project Being Dyslexic
Intensive Day Courses
Intensive long-term courses
DEVELOPMENT PRIORITY Conferences Leadership development specifically for disabled leaders. (any other programmes) (Leadership in the 21st Century) in 2002.
Article on Think CoursDeaf Leaders es. Women to Watch.
Leadership Sync Intensives Unleashed. Sync Thinking 2011. 3 courses with CLP funding: Making Successful Grant Applications, Tour Booking and Freelance Producing.
Arts council day course for artists working with vulnerable people
Lynn annually attends Engage (Gallery Education Association) conference at various locations in the UK
Watch this Space 2008. A course run by Extend which is training for artists and artist educators who work in galleries and schools
Presented at Sync South East
WORK BASED LEARNING
4. 4. Caroline Ward
5. Chas de Swiet
6. Jayni Anderton
Placements
Networks
Coaching, Mentoring, Facilitation
Placement at film restoration school as part of Sync Six month placement at the BBC with the Extend scheme CLP Peach Placement at LOCOG as Disability Cultural Associate. The placement ran for 7 months in 2008 and focused on the development and business planning for the Unlimited project.
Sync 20, Sync 100 Involved as an artist and filmmaker
Sync 20, Sync South East Coaching for three years organised through Sync
2003 Aliss (Artists learning information and support services) Two placements in 2004 and 2005 – Project Management & lead acting with “Borderlines” The New Vic theatre, Stoke Placement with Jobcentre Plus Management 2005.
2003 – 2004 Jayni ran course to train disabled artists as workshop leaders - The Way Ahead.
Online leadership Residential development through courses websites, e-newsletters and social networks The Sync Tank, the Sync website and e-bulletin. Used the Ning closed social network platform
INTENSIVE LEARNING Research
Chas obtained a bursary from Artsadmin to run a project called nutter. tv which researched the experience of psychosis from a first person perspective. The results were presented as an interactive website. 2001 Consultancy work - Art Shape Ltd, Gloucester – Research Assistant – Provision of F.E & H.E. Courses for Disabled Arts students, in West Midlands. Talking about Disability, Project at Birmingham Art galleries 2007
Intensive Day Courses
DEVELOPMENT PRIORITY
Intensive long-term courses
Conferences Leadership development specifically for disabled leaders. (any other programmes)
Sync Expo and other Sync events
CLP refreshers 21:21 event
1998: participated in course, Leading the Way – course to develop arts workshop skills.
2004 – paper Leading the Way. for LIPA The Way Ahead. Conference The Way Ahead
2001 Training to be a disability awareness trainer for Shropshire Disability Consortium
Sync 20, Sync 100
WORK BASED LEARNING Placements
7. Rachel Gadsden
8. Barry Avison
9. Stephanie Fuller
LIPA/NWDAF Workshop Leader’s Course, Leading the Way with a placement at Mockbeggar Theatre. Pass Professional Development with Disabled People (1999)
Networks
Coaching, Mentoring, Facilitation
Sync Leadership Sync Leadership South East and South East Sync 20 and Sync 20 – received coaching through these programmes between 2009 – 2011. Wirral Met College Open College Network Level 2 in Mentoring (2007) Leadership in Wirral Met College Open College a Civil Society Network Level 2 in Common Mentoring (2007) Purpose Matrix Graduate 2007
Sync 2009
Leadership Facilitation Skills – CLP course led by Action Learning Associates in 2010. Coaching through Sync 20, and subsequently an additional 6 sessions funded by employer.
INTENSIVE LEARNING Online leadership development through websites, e-newsletters and social networks Sync 100, Sync website and e-bulletin
Residential courses
DEVELOPMENT PRIORITY
Research
Intensive Day Courses
Intensive long-term courses
Conferences Leadership development specifically for disabled leaders. (any other programmes)
Sync South East and Sync 20
Sync South East and Sync 20
Sync South East and Sync 20
Conference Speaker: Unequal Spaces Disability Arts Cymru
Sync South East and Sync 20 Line-Managed a Researcher to find out the position of Deaf Arts in the North West on behalf of The Arts Council England, North West. Wrote the final report. Case studies etc on Sync
Leadership in Civil Society by Common Purpose in 2007.
LDD and LDD+ 2008 Strengths based leadership 2009 – 2 x 1day courses
Sync South East and Sync 20
Deaf Manager organized by the British Deaf Association (2005)
Leadership Unleashed 2010. Leadership facilitation skills 2010.
Lead On 2010
Sync 100, Sync 20, Lead On – see above
WORK BASED LEARNING Placements
Coaching, Mentoring, Facilitation Mandy had a mentor for 6 months when she worked at the Arts Council.
10. Mandy Colleran
11. Susan Austin
12. Ian McCrae
Networks
INTENSIVE LEARNING Online leadership development through websites, e-newsletters and social networks
Participant Coaching as part Sync Bulletins on the LUAN of Sync Intensives network to develop the careers of artists in the South West.
Ian organised a placement scheme for disabled people at the BBC
Residential courses
Research
Intensive Day Courses
MA Fine Art, University of Plymouth 2009 –2012 Theoretical aspects which support the development of a socially engaged artistic practice. 2010 – 2011: Testing the Water Arts Council funded research and development grant.
Equality South West Stepping Up to The Board – Increasing Diversity in Public
Intensive long-term courses
DEVELOPMENT PRIORITY Conferences Leadership development specifically for disabled leaders. (any other programmes)
Sync Intensives [Adam Reynold Memorial Bursary - Shortlisted 2010.]
WORK BASED LEARNING Placements
Networks
Coaching, Mentoring, Facilitation
Online leadership development through websites, e-newsletters and social networks
INTENSIVE LEARNING Residential courses
Research
Working in collaboration with Mind The Gap on the musical performance: Irresistible. Initial work in progress performances, October 2010, Bradford: Jez received a commission by Unlimited to develop this piece as part of the 2012 London Cultural Olympiad.
Mind the Gap “Of Mice and networking Men” Workshop delegations: facilitation – 2003 One Plus One launch party - Oct 2006, Beijing; network for people with disabilities; Boal ceBrazil – July 2009, Brazil; Month Ball Hong Kong – May 2009, Hong Kong; Ghent (Leading Edge) to IETM event - October 2007
Intensive long-term courses
Conferences Leadership development specifically for disabled leaders. (any other programmes)
Staging Change – 2004-2005, London: This is a series of Residencies at NCDT accredited
6th Congress of International Drama and Education Association – 2007, Hong Kong.
Sampad runs leadership training courses
13. Ranjit Sondhi
14. Jez Colborne
Intensive Day Courses
DEVELOPMENT PRIORITY
Jez carried out independent research online to learn from world leaders.
Calgary SCOPE Society. Represented Leading Edge -May 2008, Calgary. Reverb Scotland, event for disabled musicians – 5th Aug 2010, Stirling: